Published: June 22, 2009 08:31 pm      

County approves merging building department with city

Joining the city of Dalton and Whitfield County building, planning and zoning departments took another step forward on Monday.

The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners voted 2-0 to approve an agreement to combine the two departments. Commissioners Harold Brooker and Randy Waskul did not attend the meeting and chairman Mike Babb votes only to break ties.

The agreement now goes to the Dalton City Council.

There is no set budget for the new department. All department fees would go toward the budget, while any deficit would come from city/county local option sales tax (LOST) funds. This year, the county’s building, planning and zoning department’s budget is $638,802 while the city is contributing $357,080 to its building department.

All workers of the merged department would be employed by the county. Babb said he expects some positions will be cut, but he’s not sure of the exact amount.

“Attrition may take care of some of that,” he said.

Babb did not know how many workers would be employed in the new department. He said the county has taken applications for the director position. County officials won’t hire a director until the city signs off on the agreement.